My Early Years as an Employee

After realizing that I am now in my 10th year as an employee (I was officially hired by a company in JVA on May 1999), I had a recollection on what transpired during my early years at work.

After graduating college and passing the PT Boards, I first worked as a Volunteer at a Rehabilitation Center in UM Multitest. During my second month of volunteer work, I got a call from Tita Itang (my first boss' secretary who later became my ninang during the wedding) and she told me that I was in for an interview the following day. I was expecting a job in Marco Polo which opened just recently that time but my boss (father of my friend Yvette) told me that for the meantime I can work in his office (RSSI of JVA) while waiting for my job interview in M.P.

During that time I was one of the youngest employees at 22. I liked my job there. I was actually under the Manning Company but my work is more for DICI which was the agency for Sumifru that time. My job was to encode various reports. I was paid minimum salary but I was really surprised how i was able to afford everyday taxi fare to the office (I lived in Obrero and JVA was at Juna Subd). I was pretty complacent which is why I decided not to pursue Marco Polo or try my chance abroad. After DICI, Cool Shipping (a spin-off of DICI) came to picture, then Sumifru... and the rest they say is history.

Three Banana Companies, a husband and 2 kids later, here I am still an employee. I wouldn't have it any other way. Looking back I could say that if I did have regrets there'd be very few of them. Right now I am grateful where I am. Compensation-wise I am way far from what I used to earn before. Not really that big but just enough. At work, there may be so many things to criticize about but my mother always reminds me that I am way luckier than thousands of others who are jobless. I may be complaining about a lot of things like having to wake up early everyday, coming home really tired from work, having to deal with people of different walks of life, injustices at work... but at the end of the day, I will be always thankful for this job.

Thank you Lord for the 10 wonderful years at work!